“I Put on Wet Socks in the Morning”
I wanted to chat briefly about the Damselfly nymph and how most anglers standard pattern makes no sense to me. I had some great photo’s of a damsel nymph which was still alive inside a trout I took from Lake Dunstan recently, but I deleted them by mistake!! I put the green nymph in a jar of water with a sprig of rosemary (haha) where he lived happily for a week or so. I watched how it moved, how it swam (or wobbles!) etc. The one thing that struck me was how similar it was to mayfly nymph. I thought this before, but I though I was missing something that everyone else seemed to know because most damselfly nymph patterns have a long marabou tail. Why? A mayfly nymph representation generally has no marabou. I see some merit in a short marabou tail matching the length of the 3 strands in the real nymph. I’m not one for perfect representations of what fish are eating, far from it actually. However in my opinion, a damsel nymph with a long marabou tail is a woolly bugger, not a damsel! I use a long shank #12 PT or similar as a damsel nymph.
Guiding has been happily chaotic! I’m out most days at the moment but I did manage a few days for myself recently. Iza and I fished together for a day and a half too. Next season I’ll do things a little differently. I’m going to put blocks of time aside for me to fish each month. I need it!! I get a lot of what I get from a days fishing during a day guiding but not everything. Fly-fishing is my life and I must make this work. I know some guides who don’t fish at all during “silly season”. I must not let this happen!! This is only my second season so I guess I’m still finding my way a bit. Guiding continues to teach me a lot and I believe the most important thing it has taught me is how much I don’t know!! A great lesson. Therefor time must be put aside to explore new water and simply get better and better at this.
Recently I explored some new water to the north and the east. Some of it was re-familiarising myself with old haunts and some was totally new. Fishing new water is such a thrill! Absorbing everything the river has to offer, the excitement of seeing whats around the next bend, piecing it all together. Putting on wet socks in the morning means you’re in the thick of it!
Guiding has been lots of fun! I recently took Tim Kempton out for a few days. Great craic with him and his mate Fergus. Tim has fished with Paul in Malaysia which makes him the second (I think) to have been guided by both Paul and I in our respective countries (the other being Chuan Tay!). I hope more anglers do this! On the topic of Malaysia, I’m going there this July to fish with Paul for 2 weeks. I’ve been practicing a little from Paul’s instructional video on youtube so when the time comes I hope I’m on form. Speed is very important with trout fishing too so if I can make one second shots for snakehead, I’ll do it for here for trout too!!! Back to guiding, what else.. Some great heli stuff lately with Nick Mills and a fantastic West Coast mission with local regulars Bryan and Tim. That was a real adventure! One thing about heli-fishing.. The chopper takes a lot of the hard work out of it but the best results come if you’re willing to go hard while your in there. That we did! I think we had 14 trout in total for 3 days with the best fish of the trip going to Tim just before the chopper came to take us home. Many thanks to Greenstone Helicopters! Also a new personal best for Bryan, Bob and his birthday fish, the list goes on.. The pics tell a better story anyway!!
Time to prepare! I have an afternoon mission in an hour..
Tight lines!
Ronan.. ronan@sexyloops.com
For bookings and information see my website www.ronansflyfishingmissions.com
For Pure Fly NZ dvd’s go to http://www.flyshop.co.nz/product/DVDPFNZ.html
For stu’s cicada’s go to http://stusflyshop.com/browse-by-fly/dry-flies/cicada/MY GALLERY
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- The first series of Pure Fly NZ is out on DVD! Jeff Forsee and I host episode 6!
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- Iza in the water! We haven’t had a chance to fish together for ages! We did some exploratory fly fishing on a trip to the Catlins..
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- Some great reds spots on these fish. The river beats we spent 1.5 days on were extremely tricky! No easy casts from long grass, thistles, willows, high banks etc.. The challenge made it some of the most fun fly fishing I’ve had in a while.. Plenty fish to the net.
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- The Catlins..
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- Breandan?? You were a bit slack on the last blogs Flora & Fauna!
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- Small but lovely!
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- Fishing in the willows! Not much pressure in here and the fish happily ate a well presented Banana Fly ..
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- This was the best fish of 9 landed in 1.5 days.
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- Another sharp finned beauty goes back..
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- A recent day with Bryan Wrighton. A cloudy start!
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- With the sun out we had water to fish! Here Bryan is into his new personal best!
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- 8.5lbs.. Tim, you’re going to have to up the ante! He’s beaten your PB by .25 of a pound!
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- Cicada time!
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- An 8lber for me on one of Stu’s cicada patterns. http://www.stusflyshop.com
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- A great fish!!
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- What a day.. Summer is here at last!
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- A little more exploring and re-familiarising myself with old haunts. The most stunning trout come from tannin water.
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- Absolute perfection!
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- 2 days on my own on the Maniototo. This 5.5lber was the best. More vibrant red spots! Tannin water produces more red spotted trout than clear water.
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- Back he goes..
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- The amount of water around this summer was incredible!
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- Up bright and early but very few fish about..
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- ..so I went to check out some small still waters. If you have Bob Wyatts latest book, check out the back cover.. that was me down there! No joy on this day but there are about 4 good fish in there. One I recognised from about 6 years ago! Still alive.. Browns are amazing creatures.
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- This was one of the most exciting places to fish 15 years ago. Not so good now but still has potential.
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- I got a couple of beauties here. These dams are not on the F&G brochures.
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- Mathias’s Dam. 2 quick fish then off to another..
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- The only cloud in the sky parked itself in front of the sun for about 2 hours!
